AMD today announced its latest graphics driver release to advance the Ultimate Visual Experience for PC gaming enthusiasts and casual gamers alike. Expected to be available for download starting March 5, ATI Catalyst 8.3 is a milestone software update in delivering both CrossFireX for Windows Vista - the world's first quad-GPU support, and scalable, cost-effective three GPU support - as well as ATI Hybrid Graphics Technology for casual gamers. These multi-GPU capabilities provide gamers a more realistic and immersive experience allowing them to play at high resolutions with demanding image quality settings, and at a better value than competing multi-GPU solutions.

"AMD packed ATI Catalyst 8.3 with a double-barreled set of leading technologies to simultaneously push the Ultimate Visual Experience to new heights and to a wider population of PC users," said Rick Bergman, senior vice president, AMD Graphics Product Group. "We deliver industry firsts that make a visible difference to PC users, whether it's CrossFireX and the first ever quad-GPU performance on Windows Vista, or ATI Hybrid Graphics that bring a new level of performance to mainstream PC platforms."

Advancing Multi-GPU Gaming with CrossFireX
Through three- and four-GPU configurations in CrossFireX, gamers can see multi-GPU performance scaling across a range of today's most popular DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 games on Windows Vista -- up to 3.2 times the performance over a single GPU2 in some scenarios. The flexible architecture of CrossFireX allows for the mixing and matching of high-performing ATI Radeon GPUs. Any ATI Radeon HD 3850, ATI Radeon HD 3870 or ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2 cards can be combined to harness the power of up to four GPUs. CrossFireX also supports a wide range of platforms, enabling many gamers to take advantage of three- and four-GPU gaming on their existing hardware.

Boosting Game Performance through ATI Hybrid CrossFire
ATI Catalyst 8.3 also introduces ATI Hybrid Graphics support for Windows Vista. An industry first that is unique to AMD processor-based platforms, ATI Hybrid CrossFire delivers a significant 3D performance boost. Up to 70 percent increases in performance are possible in some gaming scenarios3 based on PCs comprised of an AMD 780G motherboard and ATI Radeon HD 3400 Series graphics product in Windows Vista. ATI Hybrid Graphics also support up to four independent displays through the SurroudView feature for those who want to maximize productivity.

Additional Innovations Found in ATI Catalyst 8.3
Beyond multi-GPU configurations in CrossFireX, ATI Catalyst 8.3 introduces a number of new features including:

• DirectX 10.1 and Tessellation Support: ATI Catalyst 8.3 marks the first time DirectX 10.1 support for the ATI Radeon HD 3000 series, and tessellation support for the ATI Radeon HD 3800 series have been made available to developers.
• Anti-Aliasing enhancements: ATI Catalyst introduces anti-aliasing support for all Unreal Engine 3.0-based games running in DirectX 9 mode. ATI Catalyst also allows users to enable the Custom Filter Anti-Aliasing filters (box and wide tent) while running in CrossFire Super Anti-Aliasing modes, providing superior image quality.
• HydraVision support for Windows Vista: HydraVision support is now included in ATI Catalyst Control Center for Windows Vista. HydraVision enables users to efficiently organize multiple applications across single or multiple displays. You may configure up to nine virtual desktops, and divide the Windows Vista desktop into definable areas helping to easily move and organize multiple applications.
• Digital Panel GPU image scaling: For those using widescreen displays, ATI Catalyst now allows users to enable GPU-accelerated scaling to maintain the aspect ratio of the display while providing superior image quality.
• Advanced Video Quality controls: With ATI Catalyst 8.3, multimedia enthusiasts get further control over video quality. Using the new edge enhancement feature, the level of sharpness of video content can be adjusted. Through the new noise reduction feature, ghosting artifacts can be removed while preserving the details of the original video. The new slider controls can be found in the All Settings page of the Avivo Video tab found in ATI Catalyst Control Center.

Availability
ATI Catalyst 8.3 is scheduled to be available as a free download starting Tuesday, March 4 online at http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html.